Sovereignty And Responsibility (Part 4)

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2 verse 5 where the

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Apostle Paul said, "...but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you."

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry, Mike Abendroth here.

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In real time, this is show number four today, and since I was gone in California for a lot of the summer, out of shows,

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I was probably 30, well, I cheated because I put some reruns in there. We're trying to go rerun -free for a while, unless there's a mix -up with the station,

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WVNE 760 AM. You know what? If you listen to WVNE 760 AM, you should write into the station, right into the big shots there, and say you listen to NOCO.

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And even if you don't like NOCO, but you are compelled to listen, you can write them too.

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Okay? And what do I want to tell you?

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This radio station exists for one purpose. No, okay. NoCompromiseRadio .com.

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Get fed online. I'm going to be teaching a Christology class, eight one -hour sessions every

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Tuesday night, 8 .30 p .m. Eastern Standard Time until 10 .30. And you can register.

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It's a different ministry. It's not related to NOCO or Bethlehem Bible Church, except via friendship.

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And they're going to try to get some teachers. I think I'm the guinea pig for the first one. World -class teachers after me.

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I'm just the intro guy. And eight one -hour sessions. You can see me in the

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Skype room, and then I see you, probably 25 little small Skypes on my computer screen.

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And so it's live, interactive. You take a quiz online, read a book. You can read a book online, too, if you want.

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So that's coming up. Get fed online. Israel, February 17th, next year, 2015.

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Still have room to sign up. Sign up via NOCO. You know, I don't want the

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Omaha Bible Church people to have more folks than NOCO. How does that work? There's some place in the middle of nowheresville.

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Come on. NOCO's in a town of probably 5 ,800 to 6 ,200 people here in West Boylston.

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There's a lot of people here, a lot of stop signs, a lot of stoplights. One thing we don't have here is we don't have a freeway with a stoplight on the on -ramp.

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When we were in California, my kids were like, in Southern California, Dad, you know, they got stoplights on the on -ramps.

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Yep. Just more lights to run. If you want to write me, or if you have a show idea, lots of times we have the information here.

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We could just do the show. Sometimes there's information I don't really know. Like, I've got one guy. He pesters. He's always after me.

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Do the Lamb's Book of Life show over and over and over. For five years, do the Lamb's Book of Life show.

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And so it's like a, it's like a, I don't know, a Western, some kind of duel.

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I think dueling in the United States was outlawed 1877.

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I think I'm close, 1860, something like that. It was barbaric.

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I was reading about a duel last night. Dueling had been criminalized.

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And so these guys had to go far away, away from everyone. And one guy's name was

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Bennett. The other guy, I can't remember his name. I'm reading a book, Kingdom of Ice, and it's about the North Pole exploration and getting the right kind of boat up there and what they believed it was at the top of the

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North, you know, at the North Pole. And it was warm water and they were trying to find a passageway, a northern passageway.

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Anyway, they dueled. And so the first guy shot, he was standing sideways and he shot at the other guy,

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Bennett, who was standing just, you know, shoulder width apart. And it hit him barely.

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And now the other guy gets a shot. So you just have to stand there, hoping he misses as the other guy aims.

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Amazing. Amazing. And you stand shoulder width apart because you could shoot better. So it's easier to shoot that way, but it's easier to get hit that way.

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So figure that out anyway. We're having some kind of standoff and a duel regarding the

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Lamb's Book of Life. It's in my notes. So send me what you want me to teach and then I'll use my own free will to decide whether or not to do that.

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This November, we've got the new S. Lewis Johnson Romans commentary coming out. I'll have my name there someplace in small letters.

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Took some of his material and adapted it. It's great stuff. I don't mean because I wrote it, because I didn't.

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His information in Romans 1, 2, 3. Excellent stuff. So anyway, that's coming out soon.

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Things that go bump in the church, it's a hot seller. Lots of, you know, it's number 250 ,000 on Amazon list.

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Probably worse than that by now. But anyway, some of you have been kind and said you read the book, so I'm glad.

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All right, sovereignty, responsibility. This is the final show.

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Not a no -compromise radio, no clapping you distractors, detractors, redactors.

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This is the final show with this topic. I like the topic. It stretches me. I like to study the

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Godhead because it pushes me. It moves me to awe. It moves me to wonder.

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The fear of the Lord is a beginning of wisdom. It moves me to a reverence.

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It moves me to, I am a big fat nobody. I'm a slob.

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I'm sinful. I'm wicked. Steve said the other day, I use the word scumbag.

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I think of myself, maybe of someone else in a sermon and he said,

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I shouldn't use that word anymore because it's got some urban badness to it.

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So I just thought it was like, you know, there's scum on a pond and you suck it off and that's the low of the low.

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But I guess there are other things associated with it. So I said to Steve, I would never say that word again from the pulpit, but a no -compromise radio.

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By the way, those last several Tuesdays, somebody came into the studio here and they pushed the mute button on Steve's guests.

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So I have a premium mic line mixer, 1202 -V,

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Victor, L as in, I don't know, loser,

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Z, Zed as in Zorro, three. And it has 12 channels and it's got a phone's volume and all my other stuff plugged in here.

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And then it says host, guest, and caller. So if I have a caller, guest, and so I turned it on, but somebody had muted it while I was gone and you know what?

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I think Steve muted himself. He could hear feedback when he was recording the shows in the summer.

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So he hit mute. And so therefore, three shows, the Popera, the children's songs, and another one we did about Mormons.

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You can only really hear him through my mic and Ben has tried to do his best to figure that out to jack it up a little bit, but can't go back and like redo those shows.

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Probably three years ago, we recorded a bunch of shows and the Marantz Professional Solid State Recorder PMD -620 had the wrong jack plugged into or something.

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So I did like eight shows and not one of them got recorded. And that was awful. My father used to love

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Evel Knievel, remember Evel Knievel? Breaks 200, they said he broke every bone in his body.

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I believe the adult number, because I just read this, when you're a kid, you have 300 and some odd bones in your body and an adult has 206.

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I don't know where those hundred go. I guess there's a few teeth. I didn't know where the other ones went, but true facts,

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Twitter feed must be correct. 206. Did he in fact break 206 bones?

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Not simultaneously, I know, but I loved Evel Knievel. My dad called him Awful Knuffle.

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So anyway, I think he made a profession of faith later in his life too. Maybe he and,

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I don't know, Johnny Cash, right? One thing, let's see.

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Ain't no different from sinners and the saints. One of them forgiven and the other one ain't.

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Something like that. That's George Jones though. That's not Johnny Cash. I almost said Johnny Carson. That's not

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Johnny Cash. That's George Jones. There ain't no difference between the sinners and the saints, but one of them is forgiven and the other one ain't.

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All right. There you go. See, I played the Oak Ridge Boys Theater last year, earlier this year,

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I think, but I didn't sing. Glad I didn't. What do we do on No Compromise Radio?

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Does anything exist apart from God's decree? Did God decree everything or just some things?

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You say, well, he decreed everything. Okay. Sin. Did he decree sin? Was the fall in the garden decreed for ordained?

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Yeah, God knew it ahead of time. Well, I didn't ask you that question. Was it planned? Now, I'm not asking you for the ordo salutis and when everything was planned out, but was it in fact planned?

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Yes. Does anything exist outside of God's foreordained plan?

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Now last time we were talking a little bit about, well, does that make God the author of sin? I guess the answer to the question is God, the author of sin.

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It just depends on what author is, what is, is, is the, the, what is, what is, what do you mean by is

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Edwards? Edwards by author one means promoter or executor of evil according to evil motives and arising from an evil nature.

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Then obviously God is not the author or of evil. If one means author in the sense of creator in a way in which it does not arise from either evil motives or evil nature, but only out of sovereign for ordination, then yes, there is a sense in which it could be true that God is the author of sin.

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Now we can go about this for ordination with primary causes, secondary causes.

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Does God throw Adam down regarding the fall or does he withdraw sustaining power?

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Therefore Adam has to fall. And if he throws him down, he's a positive author of evil.

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If he doesn't force him to, but withholds, right? One thing we do know, quoting a couple theologians, one, there is no law superior to God, which forbids him to decrease sinful acts.

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Probably we should get that through our noggin pretty fast. God's rules and our rules are different.

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There is no law superior to God, which forbids him to decrease sinful acts. Now I know he doesn't act outside of his nature, but just in a real practical level, if you don't believe

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God can take something sinful and turn it into something good, if you only think that that happens at the cross, then what do you do with all the evil in your world?

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Don't you want to appeal to God as sovereign, right? This whatever, you know,

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God has foreordained it whatsoever comes to pass. You know, you nailed to a cross. The other comment by a theologian said, we as creatures are bound to hinder all the evil we can, but God is under no obligation.

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So let's make sure we don't give rules for God. Let's not put God in a box.

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It's one of my all time pet peeves. I'm going to write that down as pet peeves.

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No box, no God in a box.

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That might have to be my kooks and Barneys. I just am not going to put God in a box.

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Let's not stop putting him in the box of his own word, or it says he's sovereign and man's responsible. No boxes.

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Speaking of boxes, I got an Amazon box the other day, ordered quite a bit of stuff from Amazon. And you know, if you order enough stuff in Amazon, you have good feelings that are temporary and those good feelings come in the form of packages from FedEx and from UPS.

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Yeah. I got a package. And then there's a little bill on there too. You got to pay for that, but they've cut down on some of their box, some of the cardboard in their boxes to make it more efficient.

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I guess that's for the upcoming drones. You know, if any of you have some extra money, you'd like to donate to no compromise radio.

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We're having one of those little barometer deals, you know, and it's got a certain level of where we hit and the barometer goes up as the giving comes in.

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We have a little barometer, it's for the no compromise drone, the no -code drone. And we can fly around and I can fly it over and fly it down to Atlanta where Todd is and drop some stuff off, fly it up and over to Brandon over in,

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I want to say Missouri, although he's not in Missouri, he's in Memphis. And so it's the drone, it's the no -code drone.

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And you know, I'm very reticent to ask for money on no compromise radio. And as many of you know, we have a policy, we don't ask for money and therefore we don't get it.

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Do you know, is it ever okay to change your mind on said policies? I mean, are you hypocritical if you somehow go back on it?

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You know, it's that time of the year where funds are low and hopes are high. See I have a special situation here.

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Some of my friends in radio, they pretty much have to ask for money. They're Arminians, I know, that's how it works.

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No, they ask and that's their job comes from that. My job has nothing to do with the radio station.

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That's why I just try to get this done with a few hours in a week, right? I can record four shows in two hours and then kind of move on in life so my whole world isn't surrounded by and encapsulated by no co -radio.

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So it is an extension of Bethlehem Bible Church, okay? We're nicer in person. Aye yai yai,

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God in some way, shape, form or sense has ordained sin and he gets glory out of that.

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Romans 11, 36, for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be the glory forever.

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Amen. Did God have to reveal or ordain sin?

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Well, one thing we know is he gets more glory that he did because whatever he does, he does well WGT shed.

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The reason for the permission of sin was the manifestation of certain attributes, which could not have been manifested otherwise.

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That is to say, since God has grace and mercy and love, we would not know grace, mercy and love unless there would be sins to be forgiven.

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We would not know the love of substitution if the son didn't have to be a substitute for sinners, right?

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We wouldn't understand grace without sin. We could theoretically understand it, but we wouldn't really know it.

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We couldn't understand wrath, right? We wouldn't understand wrath because without sin, what about wrath?

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Sin, don't forget, is completely under the sovereign control of God and sin is going to be overruled and has been and will eventually be overruled in such a way that God will receive maximum glory.

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Think of the cross. Let me give you some examples of God overruling sin.

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Exodus 9, 16, but indeed for this cause, I have allowed you to remain in order to show you my power and in order to proclaim my name through all the earth.

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Exodus 11, 9, then the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh will not listen to you so that my wonders will be multiplied in the land of Egypt.

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It is wrong not to listen to man's, to God's mouthpiece, right?

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Moses, but so that God's glory, his wonders would be multiplied in the land of Egypt.

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Nehemiah 13, 12, because they did not meet the sons of Israel with bread and water, but hired

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Balaam against them to curse them. However, our God turned the curse into a blessing. Isn't that cool?

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John 11, 4, but when Jesus heard it, he said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the son of God may be glorified by it.

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Lazarus's death without sin would have been no death. John 21, 19, now this, he said, signifying a, by what kind of death he would glorify

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God. And when he had spoken this, he said to him, follow me. Charles Hodge, the acts of the wicked in persecuting the early church were ordained of God as the means for wider and more speedy proclamation of the gospel.

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Isn't that interesting? Sinful persecution of the bride of Christ. You take a fist, your hands clenched, and you smash down some grapes and it just scatters all over.

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And the fist of sinful persecution smashes down God's people and spreads.

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Where sin abounds, grace did much more abound, right?

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So do you have to figure everything out regarding why sin is in the universe?

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It's enough to know that God has ordained it and God will make something good out of it. Sin is left to run its course for thousands of years and God will triumph over it.

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He did at Calvary and he is, and he will. And a lot of that will just make you say with Psalm 40, verse five, many,

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Oh Lord, my God are the wonders which you have done and your thoughts toward us, toward us.

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There is none to compare with you. If I would declare and speak of them, there would be too numerous to count.

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You know, when you pray in a way, Jesus taught his disciples to pray, pray in this way,

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Matthew six, didn't he teach them to pray thy will?

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Not their will, not Peter, James, John, Andrew, and those guys, but God, thy will be done.

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I mean, forget robots. How about just clay, simple creatures?

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We just have to say, okay, God, we just need to be humbled. Uh, we're not the ones putting you in the witness dock.

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It's the other way around. We can't ask all these questions and, and you say, well, can

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I rejoice knowing the God sovereign over sin? Can you, you should. And I heard as it were revelation 19, six, the voice of a great multitude and as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty peals of thunder saying, hallelujah for the

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Lord, our God, the almighty reigns. You know what?

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We are safe and secure. God reigns the almighty right there in revelation 19, all hell is breaking loose in chapter six through 18.

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And God reigns over all of it. Psalm 56, four in God, whose word

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I praise in God, I put my trust. I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me? Psalm seven, 27, one, whom shall

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I fear? The Lord is a defense of my life. Whom shall I dread? I'm thankful that God's sovereign over everything, including sin.

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How about including my sin and your sin? When you're sorrowful, you're thinking

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God's sovereign. When you're happy, you're thinking God's sovereign. When you think about sin, thinking about God's sovereign

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Spurgeon, there's no attribute more comforting to his children than that of God's sovereignty under the most adverse circumstances in the most severe trials.

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They believe that sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that sovereignty overrules them and that sovereignty will sanctify them all.

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You know, the Bible teaches God hates sin. You know, the Bible teaches that man has full responsibility and you know that God's plan includes sin because it's here.

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And you know, with Job 42, that no purpose of God can be thwarted.

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My favorite man with a girl's name, Lorraine Bettner said, while the Bible repeatedly teaches us or teaches that this providential control is universal, powerful, wise, and holy.

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It nowhere attempts to inform us how it is to be reconciled with man's free agency. All that we need to know is that God does govern his creatures and that his control over them is such that no violence is done to their nature.

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Amazing. You know, there's a guy, he, he didn't like all this sovereignty stuff.

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And the story goes in Scotland, the accused and convicted murderer told the judge this with his warped view, his sinful view, his limited creature view of sovereignty and responsibility.

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I was predestined from all eternity to do this crime. Blaming, see, using that as a blame.

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We can't use that as a blame. Judas couldn't, could not use that as a blame.

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I was predestined from all eternity to do it. The judge said, so be it. Then I was predestined from all eternity to order you to be hanged by the neck until dead.

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Your savior, if you're a Christian, is a sovereign God. If you're not a

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Christian, God is sovereign and you are responsible to repent and flee from the wrath, which is to come by faith in this risen savior,

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Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for sinners like you, who died on the cross for sinners like you and was raised from the dead.

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God's sovereign and you are responsible. You're dealing with this sovereign.

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If you believe in a God who's not sovereign, you've believed in the wrong God. I'm a Christian, but God's not sovereign.

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You've been believing in the wrong God for too long. You forgot about your own sin. You forgot about the divine remedy for the sin.

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You've forgotten about who is the object of your faith, the one found in the Bible who sits in the heavens and does whatsoever he pleases.

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The one in Psalm 50 that says, if I were hungry, I would not tell you. Yet he, by condescending love, opens his scepter up and points it to those and say, approach me through Jesus Christ, the

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Lord. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's Word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

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You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.